My adventures in fitness, nutrition and dealing with anxiety

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Fitness Post: Fighter Diet challenges and losing weight is a mind game

It’s been a long time! The last few years have been a whirlwind of kids getting older, parenting struggles, work struggles, and mental health struggles. It’s been a challenge, but I have learned to put my best foot forward at all times.

I’ve learned quite a bit from the last 3 years, especially about myself and how I wasn’t doing ME any favors. I’m a “carry the world on my shoulders” type of person. I thought I needed to do it all. I need to take care of the home, be a beauty expert, be a professional chef, have a great career, be in great shape and a wonderful wife. Yeah, that’s impossible, at least my idea of who I needed to be was impossible.

Now I strive to be the best person I can be. To do things that I like to do, not just what is expected of me. Fitness is something I have always enjoyed. I love lifting weights. I love Soulcycle. I love feeling sore the next day because I had a great workout.

But I also love food. Like alot. I can eat all the food. Going to a new restaurant and enjoying a decent meal with a glass or 2 of wine is extremely gratifying. Trying a new a new cookie recipe woofing them with the kids is a guilty pleasure.

This is my dilemma. I have weight I would like to lose. However, my love of food outweighs my desire to lose weight. What in the heck should I do? I have to remember that weight loss is a mind game and I need to find a way lose weight while balancing my mental gratification for good food.

I tried fitness a 12-week challenge on Fighter Diet. Pauline Nordin runs Fighter Diet and she is very motivated to get you fit. She puts together a wonderful exercise program and diet plan to get you through your 12 week journey. every week you need to take progress photos to see your results. You are also part of a fitness group on Facebook with other participants to get you motivated to keep on getting lean and building muscle. This program can provide real results. Most participants will likely need to do more than one challenge to see the results they desire to see. As they say, fitness is a lifestyle not a journey.

My negatives with Fighter Diet is that fitness is a lifestyle change and the Fighter Diet lifestyle is a very strict lifestyle. Each challenge has a set menu that they want you to follow to the tee – You can make adjustments using the Fighter Diet food pyramid, but it is discouraged. It can also be tough to navigate through all the information if you are new to the process. Fighter Diet is mainly about volume eating, so you eat huge plates of good that are not calorie dense; think massive bowls of cabbage or green beans mixed with a lean protein source. Bread is not Fighter Diet approved, nor is full fat cheese (there are certain options/brands that are available if you ask the right questions and can navigate the FB group well enough to search). My concern is that when you are done with the challenge, will you have the correct tools to use to keep the weight off. If you continue to use the Fighter Diet principles as a lifestyle, you should be okay….but what if you want to drink beer, have a slice of pie or eat a grilled cheese sandwich – How do you balance that? This was my main reason from moving away from Fighter Diet to a IIFYM approach. I also feel it can be triggering if you are battling food disorders.

All in all, Fighter Diet is a great system with a wonderful workout plan and an active facebook support system. I think the system really works if you can stick to the diet and Pauline Nordin is very passionate about what she does. She is someone that truly wants you to succeed with your fitness goals. I just feel that the diet is very difficult to stick to for the long haul.